Rather than collect Styrofoam, just stop making it

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Not to blame the messenger (“Lynnwood to host collection event for Styrofoam, e-waste,” The Herald, Dec. 30) but I find the subject of the piece — Styrofoam recycling events — crazy.

Unable, so far, to have prevented the production and use of Styrofoam, hapless consumers now end up stuck with piles of the stuff. IMHO, we should not then have to track down a disposal site or recycle event, let alone be required to clean and repackage it in clear plastic bags (another menace) before it’s off-loadable. Crazy.

All told, there must be mountains’ worth of this debris strewn about. Comparatively speaking, we (at least those of us not yet signed up with Ridwell or some other helpful service) end up ferrying around mere teaspoonfuls of it (in our individual polluting cars) just to help get it part way to a recycling facility. Crazy!

Seems to me, collection bins for this stuff should abound. In alleys behind stores, bins in parking lots, etc. As used to happen for newspapers, aluminum, and so forth. They were picked up at some point and taken to their next destination. Not crazy? Banning Syrofoam would be positively sane.

Candace Plog

Edmonds